Beyond the Headlines

Why the world’s supply of microchips is a fragile system

Microchips are integral to almost everything we do - they keep planes in the sky and cars on the roads, they are the brains of almost every modern device we use. It is microchips that mean we can walk around with smart watches more powerful than computers that took up whole rooms just a few decades ago.
But what would happen if we suddenly couldn't get hold of new chips? This is a question that has worried experts and legislators around the world for a while. And it is no longer a hypothetical thought experiment. It’s now a real issue.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young delves into why the world could be running out of microchips – and what it means for us all.  

How the death of a Kurdish-Iranian woman sparked an outcry

In a video shared many times on social media, an Iranian woman climbs on top of a car in the conservative city of Mashhad. She takes off her headscarf and starts chanting “death to the dictator”. Young protesters nearby join in before the crowd build a fire and women start burning their headscarves and slicing off their hair. Such a direct challenge to the powerful religious authorities that run Iran would usually be unthinkable. But sustained protests have been taking place across the country, sweeping through hundreds of towns and cities there, as well as abroad.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Mina Aldroubi looks at how the death of a young Kurdish-Iranian woman from Iran’s north became the rallying cry for years of frustrations and anger at the country’s leaders.

What’s on the agenda as the world meets at the UN

After a two-year disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the United Nations General Assembly has returned to normal … more or less.

While the UN has implemented a number of covid restrictions including limiting the size of the delegations attending, enforcing a mask mandate inside the building and requiring proof of vaccination, world leaders are back in New York, shaking hands, holding high-stakes bilateral negotiations and bringing the city to a grinding halt. The meeting has come at a crucial time – the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices, spiralling inflation, increasing food prices, climate change and global health are all high on the agenda.

The National's Willy Lowry takes us Beyond the Headlines at the United Nations General Assembly to look at the key issues and hear what's on the agenda as world leaders all meet again in person for the first time since the pandemic.

How climate change is affecting bees – and why we should all be worried

Gaza has only one honey-producing season, which begins with the onset of the warmer weather in March and lasts until the first week of May. This usually sets up Gaza'a honey production for the year, with 200 tonnes produced. But this year the weather stayed cold with unexpected downpours until the second week of April, and then became unusually hot.
 
The prolonged cold affected the blossoming of Gaza’s many citrus orchards and vegetable crops, leaving the bees with fewer flowers from which to collect nectar when the weather turned warmer and then too hot. These wild swings in the weather have cut honey production in the Gaza Strip by almost a third and are threatening the territory’s bee population. 
 
On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Ahmed Maher looks at how the decline of the bee population is threatening food security and whether climate change is to blame.

What comes next after Iraq’s turbulent week

On Monday August 29th, Iraq came closer to civil war than it has for year. The fears of many Iraqis that political tensions would spill out into violence were coming true.

After 11 months of parliamentary elections, government formation is still help up by complete political gridlock. As violent clashes between the followers of Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and members of militias affiliated with the Coordination Framework led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki escalated, 30 Iraqis lost their life. However, by Tuesday afternoon, Al Sadr had called back his followers from the streets and restated his intention to “retire from politics”. Since then, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi has threatened to resign, which would add further chaos to Iraq’s political scene.

In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, The National’s Editor in Chief Mina Al-Oraibi discusses these developments and what could come next, with guests Chairman of the Iraqi Advisory Council Farhad Alaadin and Senior Foreign Reporter Mina Al Droubi.

The global monkeypox outbreak amid a pandemic

As much of the world’s focus remained firmly fixed on ending the coronavirus pandemic, another illness was quietly spreading in the background and has now emerged as a global health concern. A few months ago, monkeypox, an infectious viral disease, began cropping up in countries across Europe for the first time in years. The virus is spread from person to person through close contact. Historically, monkeypox has been largely confined to west and central Africa but had occasional and short-lived appearances elsewhere - such as in the US in 2003.

Despite this, monkeypox was never really an international cause for concern, until this year.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Juman Jarallah delves into the global monkeypox outbreak and what this could mean for a world still tackling a pandemic.

Stories from the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition

On August 15, 1947, British Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten formally announced India's independence from British colonial rule. The Indian subcontinent was partitioned into two countries – India and Pakistan.
 
The borders were drawn hastily along religious lines. Muslim-majority provinces became part of Pakistan, Hindu and Sikh majority areas remained in India. The borders cut through villages, rivers and homes, leading to one of the largest migrations in history. Unexpected and unprecedented violence followed, claiming more than a million lives. Fifteen million people left the land they had called home for generations - never to return.
 
In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, we hear the stories of those who lived through the trauma of seeing their land cleft asunder.

The future of farming in the UAE

It’s amazing how the UAE’s home-grown produce has become so diversified. Over the years, farms have been modernised and new crops introduced. The supermarket aisles we browse in the UAE vividly illustrate the country’s progress.
 
The UAE aims to be the most food-secure nation by 2051, according to the National Food Security Strategy. But will this ambition be realised and can local farms keep up with the demand?
 
This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nilanjana Gupta explores the future of farming in the UAE.

Future-proofing our cities against record-breaking temperatures

This summer is breaking temperature records like never before. The rising mercury is a reminder of the impact of climate change. Unless drastic action is taken, the temperatures seen in recent weeks will become increasingly common. Failing to find sustainable ways to heat and cool our offices and homes when temperatures soar – or plummet in winter – could lead to more Co2 being produced as more people turn to AC units or turn up their thermostats. But experts say there’s another way. Rethink our built environment.
 
Increasingly, architects are turning to passive cooling methods to keep the heat down in summer. Better insulation is offering more efficient heating in winter. But more is needed.
 
On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, first broadcast in 2019, we spoke to David Shipworth, Professor of Energy and the Built Environment at University College London. He told us about how we can rethink our urban environment to make extreme weather events more manageable without costing the Earth. We also spoke to Karim El Jisr, who established The Sustainable City Institute – a global platform for advancing knowledge in sustainability and the built environment.

Lebanon’s silent crisis

For nearly three years, Lebanon has been steadily collapsing under the weight of a financial crisis that is one of the worst in the modern world. But what is life like for those who have to live through the situation on the ground?
 
To be Lebanese is to navigate a slew of daily challenges caused by the economic rupture. So people have developed coping mechanisms. And they’re not always healthy. Experts say mental health is declining, and substance use is on the rise.
 
This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada Homsi takes a look at Lebanon’s hidden psychological crisis.